The wonder that is Television actually had a good subject on tonight and one currently close to my heart. Sleep depravation.

I am currently suffering from lack of sleep, insomnia and tiredness caused by a severe cold & flu. I feel very much like making rude gestures at Kaolian for spreading forum Sars to me via this forum!

However, to not lose track of the post.

The Television programme is about an experiment being carried out over 7 days. Much like 'Big brother' a hoard of young people are made to live in a controlled environment. The stipulation of the stay being that they must not sleep. I beleive they get one hour a day or so for medical reasons but to all intents and purposes they are being denied normal sleep patterns. Seeing their behaviour change as time passes has been most amusing and also reflective on my current status (as sleep denied and stressed out ***** from ****).

For myself, I cannot make much over 24 hours without sleep. I simply pass out regardless in a sodden heap on the floor. I have even fallen asleep in nightclubs with all the loud music playing around me

So my question is, how long can you go without real sleep. What is your reaction to it?

It wasn't me this time! Honest!!!! ( I still think it was the server!!! it was sick this morning)

The longest I have ever gone without sleep was 87 hours, During which time I was so sick I couldn't sleap from the coughing and retching, and dry heaves. I think the fever helped too.

Besides that, I usually can't go longer than 48 hours. After that I get full on Migranes (not the "oh honey, i have a headache, not tonight" type, but blurry aura, then someone drives a pickaxe through your eye, and it gets worse from there type) I have only experianced them 3 times in my life, 2 of which required an emergancy room visit and cafeene shot. For that reason I really really realyl try to avoid sleep deprivation.

I've had pretty bad insomnia for about six months now. It takes me about two hours to fall asleep, and when I do it's usually very light and I wake up every few hours. I actually talked to a doctor about this, who said the problem was stress and that I think too much.

Recently, the longest I've been awake was 24 hours. I got really silly and borderline hysterical. I just remember laughing a lot and not wanting to go to bed at all.

If I have to be up the next morning, however, I get extremely ****** and annoyed, as I watch the clock and stress over every hour of sleep I'm losing.

Edit: Kao reminded me. When I was so sick a few weeks ago I had a high fever and didn't actually "sleep" for about three days. But I couldn't possibly distinguish between the lack of sleep and the fever induced hallucinations.

That show sounds scary. I can forsee a few possible outcomes. Namely, half the contestants will, of course, pass out within 3 days. Of those that are left, some will have managed to get some meth in with them, the rest will likely be deranged and hallucinating by the last day, and those two groups will probably freak out and start killing each other.

At least, that's what I hope happens. I don't have a very high opinion of "reality" programming.

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publiusvarus wrote:

we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.

I've had pretty bad insomnia for about six months now. It takes me about two hours to fall asleep, and when I do it's usually very light and I wake up every few hours. I actually talked to a doctor about this, who said the problem was stress and that I think too much.

If I have to be up the next morning, however, I get extremely ****** and annoyed, as I watch the clock and stress over every hour of sleep I'm losing.

I can really only stay awake for about 30 hours at a time. I might have gone 40 hours, at a three-day Quake (the game) convention in Manhattan. I get aural hallucinations, severe tunnel vision and stress headaches after about 24 hours. Not migraines; I get those randomly anyways.

I hate sleeping during the day. When I was on the 1am to 9am shift I would often have to do that. Then the @!#$%^& bastards come by with the headge trimmer and leaf blower, so I have to go out there and murder them, then bury the bodies. My appartment went through more illigal immigrants that year for some reason. Dunno why. I still have the heavy fabric sheet tacked up over the window.

I don't sleep very well during the day. I used to work overnights, and it farked me up royally. One of my previous apartments had a skylight in the bedroom, and the sun would be shining directly on my bed for like 3 hours while I tried to sleep.

How about driving? Anyone fall asleep at the wheel during a long trip? I can easily drive for 12 hours straight at the drop of a hat. Shotgun-driving continuously for three days, though, is rough. I can't sleep *in* a car.

I've never fallen asleep driving, but we've taken some really long trips (Illinois to California, Georgia to California and Oregon to Georgia). When I get really tired driving I start slowing down, slowing down, until Merrikat either yells at me or makes some snide remark. Then I speed back up for approximately five minutes, then slow back down...

...and when you say "woke up under a truck" did you wake up in the flattened, mangled remains of your car after you put it under the truck? Or was it more like a random fell-asleep-on-the-sidewalk type thing? Or like, waking up Sunday morning in a dumpster in Greenwich?

How about driving? Anyone fall asleep at the wheel during a long trip? I can easily drive for 12 hours straight at the drop of a hat. Shotgun-driving continuously for three days, though, is rough. I can't sleep *in* a car.

I fall asleep driving any longer than 30 minutes if it's anything other than bright daylight out.

Quote:

...and when you say "woke up under a truck" did you wake up in the flattened, mangled remains of your car after you put it under the truck? Or was it more like a random fell-asleep-on-the-sidewalk type thing? Or like, waking up Sunday morning in a dumpster in Greenwich?

I was driving from Georgetown to Lakeridge on I-95 (about 25 miles), playing a Beastie Boy's CD, drinking coffee, eating candy and with both windows down on a 30-degree day. I was on track 4 in Springfield (about halfway), and when I woke up I was on track 9 and the front half of my Dodge Colt was buried under a Dodge Ram and I had taillights at eye level. I was fine, but had fallen asleep with my foot on the accelerator. Luckily, my car was short enough and his car was tall enought that all it did was make my hood into an accordion. The cop was new and I cried from the shock and was VERY apologetic, so I got a ticket for following too closely instead of reckless driving.

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That's the kind of dude I was lookin' for And yes you'll get slapped if you're lookin', ho

in the last week or so i have gotten about 3 hours of sleep a day on average as i've been staying up all night talking to Nina. it did pay off today though, as we played a nice long game of tonsil hockey when she came over to my house.

how long can i go without sleep? not sure how long i *could* do it, but i havent gone more than 24ish hours. my reaction is my eyes BURN, and obviously, im tired. heh

So lemme get this straight-- your sleep is depraved or you become depraved when you sleep? I'm not clear on that. You don't molest kids or rub up against comotose old people on life support, do you? 'Cuz that's creepy...

I've gone close to three days when my son was born. Finally I got some rest on the horrible hospital chair/cot thing but I remained lucid through it (as far as I know). I don't think I'd be able to do it "just because", but with proper motivation I can obviously pull it off.

I sleep too much... I can and have come home from work and fallen asleep on the couch sitting up only to wake up to my alarm the next morning - good thing my husband puts me to bed or I'd be a human pretzel.

Sleeping too much is a pain too albeit minus all the hallucinations and medical problems that come with sleep deprivation. If there's something I want to do and I'm either worn out or become bored waiting to do it... that's it lights out for me.

Oh yes the absolute best is when I get a full 8 hours and yet still manage to nod out at my desk thereby giving my co-workers the impression that I either drink heavily or spend alot of time doing various nasty drugs.

Too much sleep can be rather unhealthy as well. The human body needs movement and exercise to keep working properly. Sleeping too much on a regular basis can make one just as lethargic and unproductive as someone who sits on their *** in front of a TV all day and night.

I love laying in bed. I frequently spend at least 2 hours every morning, curled up trying to doze off between slapping the snooze button every nine minutes. This is after 6-7 hours of regular sleep. Then I finally get up, all ****** off because I wasted a morning when I should have been out running errands (since I work 2nd shift, I have to do everything before 11am on weekdays) or sometimes I just turn off the alarm altogether and sleep till noon.

When I have a week consisting of late shifts, I normally get home at about 01.30 and won't go to bed until 3 - 3.30 am (having a few beers while enjoying guild chat, just winding down).

Thing is, 4 hours later I often get out at the same time as my girlfriend - who has a normal 9-5ish job - and take off from there. After a week of skipping sleep hours I do need one or two solid 10-hour nights of sleep, but generally I can fall asleep at will and stay up at will.

/comfort Jennock

I dont know what it is to be an insomniac, but it must be a royal pita.

My problem is that I can't settle down at night. I lay in bed with a million thoughts running through my mind. I've tried all the usual approaches to cure: count sheep, try and clear mind, have ***, drink wine...but no dice. Still laying awake every night thinkin' thinkin' thinkin'....

An acupunturist once told me that I need to have the energy dircted from my head to my feet../shrug. At this point I would try anything. I'm a freakin' zombie all day.

Back when I first started playing EQ I did three days without sleep. Lots of coke, coffee and candy to stay awake. But towards the second night I was definitely hearing and seeing things. I wouldn't mind trying it again, but to many things to do now during the day as opposed to back then.

I had a medical doctor (not a shrink) prescribe Zyprexa for my insomnia. The first two days it knocked me on my ***, but after that it really helped quiet the **** thinking-in-circles. I would actually fall asleep within a half hour and sleep through the night. I don't recall any side effects, and I know it's an anti-depressant type drug but it works wonders on sleeplessness.

The only problem is it's VERY expensive, which is why I don't take it anymore. If you have health insurance that covers drugs you might want to give it a shot though.

Lets see now, longest without sleep? Well, I'm in the US Navy, and I've done some long days. I think I was up for almost 96 hours once. I managed to do it through a series of Nodoze, coffee, and Snickers bars. Afterwards I must have slept 24 hours straight, waking up only to use the bathroom and have a sandwich.

I have seen a doctor about sleeping and right now I am doing some sort of retarded "mapping" of my sleep habits to see if there is a discernable pattern. What a pain in the ****. I am really trying to stay away from taking meds to get sleep because I think it's a slippery slope. I don't want to have to rely on the meds to sleep, but then again, my system of getting 40 winks right now isn't so sh*t hot...

Let me know if they give you any great insight. From the look of this thread several people would be interested/helped by it.

I know what you mean about the meds. At first I was told to take anihistamines <sp?>, as they make you sleepy. I had a major problem with this since 1) I hate taking pills and 2) the longer you take that **** the more you have to take for it to work. I've also tried Excedrin PM, which has two really special effects on me: if I don't fall asleep immediately I'm up all night (loopy, no less) and when I wake up I feel like ****.

I'm glad that you at least found a doctor that is interested in finding out why and perhaps solving it naturally. Most doctors these days seem to just push drugs for every occasion.

Well, I wouldn't say the doc was especially excited about looking for alternative solutions but he seems to be trying anyway.

I have the exact same reaction to Nytol et al. I feel loopy all night too and then like I have hollow legs all day the next day. Have you tried herbal remedies? Valerian root is quite good - works sometimes and other times not so well, but at least it's herbal!

Hmmm. I've never heard of it. Can one buy it at a grocery store or is it harder to find? We don't have any alternative type stores here in this one horse town. The only 'herbal' med I've ever tried is St. John's Wort for depression. It actually seemed to make me worse.

Well, I went to a herb store in this city and found it quite easily. Talk to a pharmacist - there are lots of over the counter meds you can buy that have Valerian in them. You can order herbs online too. The only other thing is, Valerian smells awful...like baby poo dipped in bile. Yummy!